The Dating Sites Wooing Users Worldwide [Benchmarks]

I didn’t meet my husband the “old-fashioned way” in a bar. Nope. We met on the Tinder app. While some may be surprised I found love on a dating app, it’s definitely not the exception to the norm anymore.

The online dating industry grew by 15.6% in 2021. People worldwide hoping to connect with that special someone are looking to technology to give them a hand. Case in point: There were almost three billion total visits to dating and relationship websites so far in 2022. However, a year-over-year (YoY) analysis shows that traffic to online dating sites decreased by 3.3% from March 2021 to March 2022. Despite this small decrease in traffic, digital dating is still high in demand across the globe.

With so many people searching for their perfect match, competition is tough for brands in the business of love.  It can be difficult to understand where you stand among other dating websites. That’s where digital benchmarking comes in. You can analyze traffic and usage patterns, audience demographics, and user engagement to identify market leaders and understand your performance in relation to the industry as a whole.

In this edition of our industry benchmarking series, we break down the top dating websites worldwide to show you who’s winning hearts online.

Love without borders: a global glance

The top dating and relationship websites worldwide are: tinder.com, badoo.com, match.com, pof.com, and 550909.com. There were 945.7 million total visits to this industry worldwide in March 2022, an 8.8% increase from the month before.

Other key benchmarks (March 2022):

Marketing channels: Most online dating traffic worldwide comes from direct (74.5%), followed by organic search (12.3%), referrals (4.7%), and email (4.1%).

Geography: Worldwide, 19.8% of traffic share (64 million visits) comes from visitors in the U.S., 12.8% from Russia, 6.2% from Germany, 5.7% from France, and 3.3% from the U.K.

Bounce rate: On average, 27% of visitors to these websites view only one page before losing interest and leaving.

United States: more people seek a match

Dating and relationship websites have seen less traffic over the past year in the United States. In March 2022 there were 12.5% fewer total visits YoY compared to March 2021.

The top U.S. dating and relationship websites don’t stray too far from the global pattern. Zoosk.com and okcupid.com make the list, replacing badoo.com and 550909.com. Match.com is much more popular though, snagging the number one spot with 7.8% of traffic share (compared to 2.2% globally).

Other well-known dating websites make the top 10 leaderboard. Last month ashleymadison.com had 6.8 million monthly visits or about 1.9% of the traffic share, and ourtime.com earned 6.7 million monthly visits or 1.9%.

Other key benchmarks (March 2022):

Marketing channels: Most of the traffic to online relationship websites in the U.S. comes from direct (73.3%), followed by organic search (11.4%), emails (9.7%), and paid search (3.0%).

Desktop vs. mobile split: Desktop accounts for 26.0% of visits, whereas 74.0% of device distribution comes from mobile web – not surprising.

Gender distribution: 62% of visitors to these websites are male and 38% are female.

Russia: keeping it local

Russia is the second most popular country for online dating, with about 107 million monthly visits in March 2022. This is a 16% increase compared to March 2021, during which there were 92 million visits to online dating websites.

Compared to the global average, Russia has a better engagement rate, with longer session duration and higher pages per visit on average, meaning the audience is spending more time clicking through these websites before exiting.

Local and niche dating websites, like fotostrana.ru, love.ru, and love.mail.ru dominate in the region. This suggests that while there are certain companies we expect to dominate worldwide, a micro view can reveal smaller, influential players you need to monitor.

Other key benchmarks (March 2022):

Marketing channels: Most of the traffic to online relationship websites in Russia comes from direct (59.7%), followed by organic search (15.2%), referrals (13.4%), and social (5.8%). While Russia receives less direct traffic than the global standard, the country has much better performance in terms of referrals and email.

Age distribution: On average, 75% of visitors are between the ages of 18-44 years old; 25% are 45+ years old.

Gender distribution: 49% of visitors to these websites are male and 51% are female.

United Kingdom: Love Island

Despite its influx of hysterical dating shows, the U.K. online dating industry has slightly decreased YoY. Between March 2021 and March 2022, total visits decreased by 2.2%, falling from 53.6 million to 52.4 million.

Similar to the U.S., the top online dating websites in the U.K. mirror the global pattern. However, freedating.co.uk replaces 550909.com in the top five. Match.com takes the lead in the U.K. with 8% of the traffic share.

Other key benchmarks (March 2022):

Age distribution: On average, 66% of visitors are between the ages of 18-44 years old; 34% are 45+ years old.

Desktop vs. mobile split: Desktop makes up 20.5% of visits, but mobile once again dominates the device distribution with 79.5%.

Bounce rate: On average, 39% of visitors only view one page before leaving.

France: the breakup

Last month, traffic to online dating websites in France increased by 6%, to 54.9 million. Despite a higher-performing month, of all the countries on this list, France has seen the biggest decline in traffic YoY. Traffic in the industry dipped 19.5% since March 2021.

The top traffic share winners represent a nice split between international companies and more local ones. Meetic.fr leads the way with 9.8% of traffic share or 6.8 million monthly visits. Other local traffic share winners include jecontacte.com and disonsdemain.fr. Tinder.com sneaks in at fifth place with 4.9% of the traffic share or 3.4 million monthly visits.

Other key benchmarks (March 2022):

Desktop vs. mobile split: Desktop accounts for 33.8% of visits, whereas 66.2% of device distribution comes from mobile web.

Bounce rate: On average, 28% of visitors view one page before leaving.

Gender distribution: 55% of visitors to these websites are male and 45% are female.

Germany: visitors are direct

Between March 2021 and March 2022, online dating websites only grew 1.5%, from 64.6 million total visits to 63.6 million. Despite this,  traffic to online dating websites in Germany increased by 8.4% compared to last month.

Joyclub.de is by far the most popular online relationship website, with 32.8% more monthly visits than its closest competitor. The website also receives 78% more unique visitors than finya.de.

Other key benchmarks (March 2022):

Marketing channels: Most of the traffic to online relationship websites in Germany comes from direct (74.5%), followed by organic search (12.3%), referrals (4.7%), and email (4.1%).

Bounce rate: On average, 27% of visitors to these websites view only one page before leaving.

Desktop vs mobile split: Desktop makes up 37% of visits, and 73% of the device distribution comes from mobile web.

Japan: female power

Of all countries on the list, Japan had the highest growth YoY. Between March 2021 and March 2022, traffic to online dating websites grew 21.7% from 134.1 million total visits to 163.2 million.

Like Russia, some of the top Japanese dating sites are more regionally focused. Although tinder.com makes the list of the top ten traffic share winners for the country, it’s tenth on the global list with 3.2 million monthly visitors. For reference, the top website, 550909.com, receives 30.5 million monthly visitors.

Other key benchmarks (March 2022):

Age distribution: On average, 85% of visitors are between the ages of 18-44 years old; 15% are 45+ years old.

Bounce rate: On average, 31% of visitors to these websites view only one page before leaving.

Desktop vs. mobile split: 7% of visits came from desktop, whereas 93% of the device distribution comes from mobile web.

Apps to swipe right on

We couldn’t leave the top mobile apps off this list. As you can see from the metrics above, the majority of traffic to the top websites in this category comes from mobile web, so it makes sense that dating in the app world is taken seriously.

Take a look at the top dating apps in the U.S., including their performance breakdown. Bumble takes the number one spot, with an install penetration of 1.5% and 2.9 million downloads from January to March 2022.

Need a refresher on the engagement metrics you should be looking at for apps? Check out this quick summary of the metrics analyzed:

• Install Penetration. The percentage of devices in the defined market with the app installed on average.
• Downloads. App downloads from the Google Android Store in the given time period.
• Unique Installs. Unique app installs during the given time period.
• Daily Active Users. The average amount of unique daily active users.
• Monthly Active Users. The average amount of unique monthly active users.

Top Dating Websites By Country

This is just a taste of the data and insights you can collect with Similarweb’s research intelligence tool for benchmarking. Ready for a second date? Try it now for free to see which dating apps are hot, which ones are striking out, and most importantly, where you fit into the market.

by Molly Winik

Senior Content Marketing Manager

Molly has 8+ years of experience in marketing, content creation, and PR. Her work has been featured on Mention, The Times of Israel, and Culture Trip.